04/09/2015

Blab: Learn, Network and Market Yourself

About ten days ago I discovered Blab, a livestreaming platform where anyone can start a public conversation with up to four people (three plus the host). Although I was annoyed because a lot of the active conversations were about the possibilities of Blab in online marketing, I decided to give it a try.

blab

As I said, conversations in Blab are public and everyone is allowed to use it for free. It is designed to be conversational, so even though you can start a Blab (yes, Blab conversations are called Blabs) alone it will not become public until you are talking to someone else. To do so, you only have to push a button and invite whoever you want. Then, anyone else can ask (or be invited) to join the conversation unless the four seats are full, and it is up to the host to accept or not the requests. The rest of the people (the audience) can watch the conversation, make comments and give props to the active participants. Finally, the host decides if the conversation will be recorded or not.

I mentioned before that I did not like that almost all the active conversations were about marketing. My work has to do with marketing, so… is not it weird that I felt that way? I think it is not, because… do you think an electrician only thinks about cables? I am tired of seeing that a high percentage of the time in social media is spent on talking about… marketing in social media! For that reason, often I prefer to look for something else…

So, I avoided the marketing topic and started to join different conversations where people spoke about anything else: weight loss, cooking, fitness, music, politics…. even zombies. Most of the time I was only part of the audience, but sometimes I took a seat and talked to the other active participants (sometimes I asked to join, but other times I was invited by the host).

After all this activity, here are some personal conclusions:

What I like:

  • It is very easy to join or unjoin a conversation, making the experience very interesting and rich.
  • It is a good idea that you can choose wether or not record the session.
  • I like the limit of four people at a time.
  • It is very social and appropriate to network (and, in my case, to practice English!).
  • It is a good place to learn about any topic.
  • Of course, it is a good place to share what you know (and to market yourself 😉 )

What I dislike:

  • It is allowed to change the title of the session anytime. I understand this can be useful, but I think it can be confusing from an audience point of view.
  • I do not see the point to give props. I just do not understand why it might be useful to anybody.

Question:
Have you tried Blab? What did you like the most? Is there anything you dislike about it?

Picture: Monky talk (Mark Rowland)